Mentoring From a n00b’s perspective

Allison Sheren @allie_p

Sunday, November 10, 13

Who Am I?

Rails Girls DC Organizer

N00b

motivated learner

community lover

Mentor and mentee

First time lightening talker

Sunday, November 10, 13

There have been a ton of people

who have helped me learn

Sunday, November 10, 13

Everyone had the best intensions but some people were great to learn

from and some were not.

Sunday, November 10, 13

And that’s okay.

Sunday, November 10, 13

Here are my main tips for being an effective mentor

Sunday, November 10, 13

1. At the beginning, understand that it’s hard to know what

to ask and every word sounds like a foreign language

Sunday, November 10, 13

so encourage relentless curiosity

what is terminal? What is the command line? What is IRC?

Why should I not be terrified of GitHub?

Sunday, November 10, 13

2. Don’t go down the rabbit hole

Sunday, November 10, 13

I have no idea what you’re talking about

anymore and I’m now really scared of coding.

Sunday, November 10, 13

3. Understand if you’re not

understood

Sunday, November 10, 13

People learn from different people in

different ways. It’s not personal, it’s just the

brain.

Sunday, November 10, 13

4. The dreaded answer to “what I

should read?”

Sunday, November 10, 13

Give direction. Which book

should be read first, why, and

what should we be learning from

it

Sunday, November 10, 13

5. Don’t put your fingers on my

keyboard

Sunday, November 10, 13

Really really difficult, but if you can have the patience to explain and

say everything the person should type,

they learn more

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6. Help celebrate the small stuff and motivate to do the

big stuff

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Thank You!@allie_p

Lightening Talk:

Sunday, November 10, 13